Comedian Conan O’Brien found his late-night show in serious trouble after his appearance on the popular online show Hot Ones went viral.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the former late-night show host weighed in on the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and the brief hiatus of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Comments after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
In 2024, O’Brien appeared on the YouTube show Hot Ones, where celebrities answered questions while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings.
His appearance on the show was viewed over 15 million times.
“It was an eye-opening moment,” O’Brien told The Hollywood Reporter. “If a guy can do a World Series show for what I think is about $600 in overhead and have big stars lined up for his show and chicken shop dates…that’s when I really understood that late-night TV was in trouble.”
Colbert, whose show ends in May, called O’Brien “the patron saint of former talk show hosts” and said he had been urging Colbert to leave the show for years. O’Brien spent nearly 30 years on multiple late-night shows on NBC, including hosting “Late Night” (1993-2009) and then briefly “The Tonight Show” (2009-2010) before moving to TBS, where he hosted “Conan” until 2021.
“A few years ago, we were missing the Emmys, and he kept saying, ‘Don’t feel like you have to stay because I want you to know that we’re going to have a lot of fun when this is over.’ He almost hurt my feelings, but he was just being sweet. He was Dutch’s uncle,” Colbert told The Hollywood Reporter.
Some believe Colbert’s criticism of President Donald Trump influenced the show’s ending. The Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission, chaired by Brendan Carr, had to approve the acquisition of CBS parent company Paramount by David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
“Certainly, I think these shows are going to be phased out and become something else,” O’Brien said.
But O’Brien added, “But I don’t like it when other malign forces intervene, because they’re trying to curry favor. That makes me angry.”
In September, Kimmel’s late-night show was taken off the air after Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s assassination suspect sparked outrage and a veiled threat from the FCC.
Disney decided to suspend the show after two major affiliate owners pulled Kimmel from their stations, but Kimmel reportedly told executives he would not apologize for his comments. His show resumed after a short hiatus.
CBS announced last year that Colbert’s show would end its run in May of this year, but denied that this was a purely financial decision and had nothing to do with the then-impending merger between Paramount and Skydance.
O’Brien, who continues to be active with his podcast and show on HBO Max, will host this Sunday’s Oscars ceremony for the second year in a row.
